A few years ago, I thought that emphatic listening meant nodding every once in a while and emitting occasional grunts of approval!

What is Empathy instead?Empathy means seeing the world through the eyes of someone else and being able to communicate such experience. In order to do that, you need to suspend your judgment for a while, and temporarily adopt the cultural, moral, and religious background of the person you seek to understand. Finally, reflect back what you have seen, felt and heard: one way to do that is rephrasing and summarizing what the other person has just said.

What are the benefits of being empathic? Empathy breaks the barrier which separates us from other individuals and creates a warm sense of intimacy. Practice empathy and you’ll never feel alone again.